Human behaviour according to Ayckbourn

Alan Ayckbourn's clever and stylish comedy Time Of My Life will be staged by MADC this weekend at the Manoel Theatre.

Mr Ayckbourn, one of Britain's best loved and prolific playwrights, is a master of comic timing, visual theatre, awesome characterisation and painful circumstance.

He is a constant theatrical innovator and a writer whose trademark is increasingly the ability to tread a delicate tightrope between humour and despair.

Time Of My Life is vintage Ayckbourn. It delves into the theme of hidden emotions, obsession and unrequited love, exploring human fallibility and exposing human frailty with the author's characteristic skill and wit. As the play unfolds, it reveals skeletons from the past and a spectre of the future.

It explores the complicated relationships of the Stratton family and reveals both the dark and the positive sides of human behaviour, examining trust and familial loyalty and laying bare the true character of each individual family member. The humour is simultaneously tough and tender and wrapped in the playwright's rich, funny and thoroughly human worldview.

Directed by Nanette Brimmer, the cast of Time of My Life is made up of Polly March (who is flying in from the UK to portray Laura), Colin Willis, Stefan Cachia Zammit, Pia Zammit, Simon De Marco, Faye Paris and James Borg. Booking for the play, to be staged between Friday and Sunday is from the Manoel Theatre booking office on 2124 6389, or via e-mail bookings@teatrumanoel.com.mt